I couldn't possibly comment on FF, because I've never really played it (I know, I know - for shame), but I've always thought something similar about Dynasty Warriors.
The men are all fantastically varied from their sizes and ages to their facial hair and voice acting, but the women are all hotpant-clad teens or twenty-somethings who fall into one of two categories - 'sparky', headstrong, squeaky-voiced irritant who you feel obliged to smash in the face with a pole-axe until she learnes her place, or a languid, sultry, door-mat of a woman, who is fighting for her husband's cause.
For the most part, I understand that the novels which form the basis for the series were incredibly male-led and that there aren't so many women to pick out of the narrative...but, ffs, you've made all of the characters MAGICAL anyway, why not go a bit further with the artistic license and have a female character who is strong in her own right and not just fighting for/beside her husband?
Even the weapons they're given annoy me - Yue Ying gets a bow and arrow. The Qiao twins fight with fans. Zhen Ji fights with A MAGIC FLUTE. It was only in DW6 that she was upgraded to a chain whip. Still wears a sarong and a bra, though. Excellent stuff.
You'd never see a male character fighting with a flute, and even when they're given a seemingly 'girly' weapon (for example, Zuo Chi fights with a cursed deck of cards, and Zhuge Liang with a 'war fan'), their power is upgraded to compensate. The cursed deck is probably the most powerful weapon in the game, with that bloody war fan coming a close second - it lets him fly! It shoots lasers! The fans wielded by the Qiao twins, by comparison, do neither of those things.
Wow...turns out this gets on my nerves more than I'd previously thought. Oh well :)
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The men are all fantastically varied from their sizes and ages to their facial hair and voice acting, but the women are all hotpant-clad teens or twenty-somethings who fall into one of two categories - 'sparky', headstrong, squeaky-voiced irritant who you feel obliged to smash in the face with a pole-axe until she learnes her place, or a languid, sultry, door-mat of a woman, who is fighting for her husband's cause.
For the most part, I understand that the novels which form the basis for the series were incredibly male-led and that there aren't so many women to pick out of the narrative...but, ffs, you've made all of the characters MAGICAL anyway, why not go a bit further with the artistic license and have a female character who is strong in her own right and not just fighting for/beside her husband?
Even the weapons they're given annoy me - Yue Ying gets a bow and arrow. The Qiao twins fight with fans. Zhen Ji fights with A MAGIC FLUTE. It was only in DW6 that she was upgraded to a chain whip. Still wears a sarong and a bra, though. Excellent stuff.
You'd never see a male character fighting with a flute, and even when they're given a seemingly 'girly' weapon (for example, Zuo Chi fights with a cursed deck of cards, and Zhuge Liang with a 'war fan'), their power is upgraded to compensate. The cursed deck is probably the most powerful weapon in the game, with that bloody war fan coming a close second - it lets him fly! It shoots lasers! The fans wielded by the Qiao twins, by comparison, do neither of those things.
Wow...turns out this gets on my nerves more than I'd previously thought. Oh well :)